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Coronavirus pandemic
This Week in AsiaHealth & Environment

What’s up with India’s coronavirus lockdown: did it work and what’s the plan now?

  • The Modi administration has extended the lockdown for two weeks, lauding its effectiveness in halting the virus’ spread, even as the economy takes a hit
  • Public health experts worry the time – which could have been used to prepare for a second wave of infection – has been wasted

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A government official checks the temperature of migrant workers to prepare a list of those staying in a camp in New Delhi during India’s virus lockdown. Photo: AFP
Kunal Purohit
Nearly six weeks after India’s government imposed a complete coronavirus lockdown on the country’s more than 1.3 billion residents, the jury is still out on whether the restrictions had the desired effect.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has emphasised the positive outcomes, other observers have their own mixed opinions of one of the world’s strictest lockdowns – which on Friday was extended for two weeks beyond May 4 – and whether it has achieved all that it was expected to.

On Friday, India recorded 1,913 new coronavirus cases over 24 hours, taking the country’s total to 35,043 with 1,147 deaths. The government, in extending the lockdown, said restrictions would be relaxed in districts that did not have active Covid-19 infections.

According to Modi’s government, the growth rate of infection is slowing and is evidence of the lockdown’s success. Yet with millions of migrant workers stranded far from home without access to adequate food supplies, and millions more pushed into poverty, some are questioning whether the lockdown was worth it. Especially as the country’s GDP growth rate drops into the negative – piling on the pressure to lift restrictions.

Independent health experts have also questioned whether the government has made best use of those six weeks to plan for an uncertain future.

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